ASUS
EAH3870/G/HTDI/512M Radeon 3870 Graphics Card: $250
www.asus.com

REMEMBER WHEN $600 GRAPHICS CARDS CAUGHT ALL THE headlines? You were left scratching your head thinking, “None of my customers are ever going to buy one of these things.” Just when it seemed like those enthusiast boards were only destined to get more expensive, AMD launched its Radeon HD 2900, 2600, and 2400 families. Instead of cranking prices up yet again, the three lineups set new precedents for affordability. Even more surprising, the top-end Radeon HD 2900 wasn’t the attention-getter because it didn’t include every available type of hardware-based video acceleration.

ASUS’s EAH3870/G/HTDI/512M, based on the new Radeon 3870 GPU, puts AMD’s fastest GPU back in the spotlight with an even stronger value proposition, additional functionality, and impressive performance. The 3870 chip leverages a new 55nm manufacturing node and slimmer internal bus, which halves die size compared to AMD’s Radeon HD 2900 without sacrificing processing power. Your customer still gets 320 stream processors and 16 texture units. However, the 3870 adds PCI Express 2.0 support, DirectX 10.1 functionality, UVD, and PowerPlay. Of course, UVD is the video decoding engine that wouldn’t fit on the Radeon HD 2900. As a component of AMD’s Radeon 3870, enthusiasts can now buy the company’s flagship GPU and get the functionality they expect, including high-def video acceleration.

In addition to the powerful Radeon 3870 GPU, ASUS endows its board with 512MB of GDDR4 memory blazing along at 2.25 GHz and a 775 MHz core clock. Two dual-link DVI outputs connect to digital displays, analog monitors through bundled adapters, and high-def TVs through an included HDMI connector. ASUS adds value to its EAH3870 through a comprehensive software package that features Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, one of the few DirectX 10 titles currently shipping, Gamer OSD, Splendid, Smart Doctor, and Video Security Online-—all ASUS titles that help facilitate tweaking and tuning.

INTEL
Xeon X5272 Processor: $1,172
www.intel.com

THERE’S SUCH A THING AS BLAZING PERFORMANCE at an attractive price and reasonable power budget. Intel’s new Xeon X5272 centers on the company’s new 45nm manufacturing node, which enables core clocks and bus speeds Intel hasn’t been able to hit until now. If your customer is running software more sensitive to raw muscle than the multiple threads, this is the chip to suggest.

The Xeon X5272 belongs to Intel’s 5000 series, so it’s designed to run in 2P configurations. As one of only three dual-core chips in the 45nm 5000 family, the CPU gives up two cores in favor of higher operating frequencies. In this case, Intel hits a 3.4 GHz clock using a swift 1600 MHz front side bus. The combination should yield healthy performance gains in apps that favor frequency. Not that the X5272 would suffer any in extremely threaded software. Drop two into your favorite 2P barebones machine for four execution cores cranking in parallel.

This isn’t the highest-clocked dual-core Xeon Intel has ever offered—-that honor goes to the 3.73 GHz Xeon 5080. But while the 5080 was rated at 130W TDP, the X5272 only uses 80W. In a 2P server, that’s 100W of power savings you can offer from a chip with more cache and a faster bus.

Priced at $1,172, Intel’s X5272 is definitely a high-end part in need of a comparably top-shelf platform. After all, it runs on a brand-new bus speed setting only available from motherboards sporting the 5400 chipset. That includes one lone board from Intel’s lineup: the S5400SF, with room for up to 64GB of FB-DIMM memory.

ANTEC
NSK4480B Mini Tower Chassis: $99
www.antec.com

FINDING A GOOD LOOKING CHASSIS IS HARD ENOUGH, NEVER mind an enclosure that’s attractive, affordable, scalable, and equipped with an energy-efficient power supply. Yet Antec’s NSK4480B manages to integrate a sleek, black mini-tower with plenty of room, concessions for ultra-efficient cooling, and an 80 PLUS certified power supply, all for under $100.

The enclosure is built using .8mm rolled steel construction, so it’s certainly sturdy at 18 pounds. And although Antec calls the case a mini-tower, it actually accommodates microATX and standard ATX motherboards with room to spare. Eight total drive bays take three front-mounted 5.25” devices, two 2.5” drives, and a trio of hard drives offset by silicone grommets for noise reduction.

You find plenty of cooling built in and lots of room to expand. Antec bundles a single 120mm TriCool three-speed exhaust fan on the backplane. Resellers can add an 80mm cooler to the front of the case, plus there’s an additional air guide with the option for adding a second 80mm fan.

Despite the integrated fan mounts, quiet computing is Antec’s goal here as evidenced by the copious ventilation. The pre-installed 380W EarthWatts power supply is 80 PLUS certified, meaning it converts at least 80% of the AC power it draws from the wall into usable DC power at 20%, 50%, and 100% of rated load. Better efficiency translates to less energy lost as heat, which in turn requires less cooling output and a marked noise reduction.

The NSK4480B and its 380W EarthWatts power supply serve as a solid foundation for business PCs. In a more enthusiast-oriented environment, you’d want to replace the EarthWatts with one of Antec’s TruePower units, which gives you more power output and a wider variety of power connectors.

TARGUS
ACP60US ExpressCard Notebook Docking Station: $189
www.targus.com

CARDBUS ADAPTERS ARE still popular, but most new laptops forgo the older expansion technology in favor of ExpressCard. That means resellers need to be selling compatible mobile peripherals. Targus’s new ACP60US Notebook Docking Station is a perfect companion to any whitebook sporting ExpressCard technology.

What does ExpressCard do for the docking station that a standard USB 2.0 or CardBus interface wouldn’t? USB 2.0 transfers data at up to 60 MB/s. A CardBus slot is essentially a 32-bit PCI slot, which, at its fastest, peaks at 133 MB/s. An ExpressCard slot backed by a single PCI Express x1 link has access to more than twice that throughput.

Use the bundled cable and ExpressCard 34mm card adapter to connect Targus’s docking station to your customer’s notebook. From there, you need only install a driver (Targus already offers a Vista-compatible software package) to deliver four USB 2.0 downstream ports, one serial connector, a Gigabit Ethernet port, VGA output, DVI output, audio from six channels, and optical output. That’s a ton of functionality from just a single port. Of course, you won’t want to saturate every single one of the station’s interfaces, but from just that one connection you’re able to offer all of the scalability normally available to desktop workstations for less than $200. That’s a great value to anyone who has a desk full of technology at the office and still needs to stay mobile.